yvesvidal

... than, before iI start with my build, i post few photos from the ship my friend Mile Bijelić made. Well, I hope to be not to far from the quality of the model, but, let's see...
 
(Mile is the guy in blue shirt, I am on the left - the ship is the HMS Prince 1670, 1:70, won gold last year on World championship)
 
Dražen
 

Friday October, 25th,2013.
 
"Mayflower".

my first working with PE, using C/A at present thsi is part of the smoke stack

Adding of the last hour: this afternoon I found myself coming back to my lab and, since I had with me my new smartphone (bought about a month ago to replace the old traditional cell which was practically undone), I took three photos of the 12 Apostles.
 
The photos are of very bad quality (improving as a photographer from mobile will be a future task) but they give an idea of ​​where I'm now.
 
Regards, Jack.
 

 

 

 
 

Well, here they are. First photos of where I am so far. Will try to update as I go. The glue I'm using is Aleen's "Turbo Tacky" and "Quick Dry TAcky Glue". I also have a small stick of UHU contact glue. The washers and nuts in the background are for weighing down things as they dry.

Kimberley: Here are some photos of my Santa maria. I hope you can find something useful in them. This is the Heller kit in 1/75

Hi everyone. Many thanks for the great feedback and for the photo above. If you're not aware, the Dorade website is also a great refrence for the ship, with many detailed photos of the ship - http://dorade.org.
 
As for the deck, well, it has been glued permanently on. The reason being that there is a considerable amount of the hull that has been cut away to expose the interior, as well as being viewable through the open deck, that, I thought that would suffice. Well, I hope that's the case, anyway.
 
Thanks for the comment about the winches. There was no easy way for me to do them, so I did them by hand. Twirling them in my finger with a file. Slow, but brass is pretty soft and once you get into a rhythm, it's pretty easy.
 
I am also definitely an admirer of Donald McNarry! I can only dream of reaching his standard of workmanship. Phil Reed and Llyod Mc Caffrey are also people I admire.
 
I'll definitely post more photos as the build progresses!

Richard,
 
please don't be shy to post pictures. It is not everyday that we get a chance to admire such beautiful and impressive boat.
Wonderful start so far!
 
Yves

Hi everyone. Ever since I first read about the famous Sparkman and Stevens' designed yawl (built over 80 yrs ago snd she's still racing), I've wanted to build a model of her. So, after thirty years of dreaming, I've now started to build a scratch built, miniature, fully detailed model, complete with interior accommodation, etc. The model is a true miniature, ie only 15 cms approx in hull length.
 
As you can see, I have tried to adhere to full sized construction practices by using a built up keel and bent frames. All the wood was cut using my miniature table saw, which, is a lot of fun and satisfying, not to mention, cost effective.
 
I still have a long way to go before I finish the masts, winches, blocks and rigging, but it's been a hell of a lotta fun so far.
 
I hope you enjoy the model and photos. I will post more pics as work progresses.
 
Comments, feedback and suggestions are most welcomed!

Hi All,
 
After filling and sanding the hull to get a nice smooth surface for the second layer of planks my next job was to mark out and cut the gunports. The instructions tell you to do this after the second layer of planks has been completed but I think that if I cut them now any small errors or minor damage to the planks while cutting them out can be covered by the second layer.
 
I made up a small tool to ensure the ports are all the same size. I got the sizes from the brass inserts that are to be glued into the ports
 

 

 
I also made up one of each of the cannons so I could get the height to the lower sill from the deck correct. Unfortunately the kit only supplies two sizes of cannon so the larger 32 pounder gun will go on the lower and middle gun decks and the smaller 12 pounder gun will go on the upper gun deck
 

 

 

 
The next pics are of the gunports marked out . I thought I had a picture with the gunport pattern attached to the hull but I can't find it, probably deleted it  
 

 

 

The first planking is finished I am fairly happy with how it turned out however some filler will be needed to fill some small gaps between the planks and to fill the dimples near the lower part of the bow to give it a nice round shape
 

 

 

 

Now it came to the tricky part of shaping the planks around the bow and keeping their upper edge tight against the previous laid plank. To achieve this I soaked the planks in cold water for about 20 minutes and then shaped the curve around the bow with plank nippers I then pinned the plank to the frames and allowed it to dry. When it was dry I removed from the frames and made any small adjustments required and then glued it into position. 
 
I did not measure the frames or lay planking bands on this model as it only a section. I laid the planks by eye judging when and for how much of their length tapering was required. The first three planks around the bow are full width and then they taper slightly as they go down the hull. No plank is tapered to less than half of it's width. The supplied timber for the first planking is 6 x1.5 mm Walnut
 

 

 
Some of the planks required clamps to keep the edges together and to help keep them flat  so that minimal filling  and sanding will be reqiured for the second layer, I hope  
 

 

 
I think this type of model is difficult to plank because you only have the 4 frames and the support pattrens to fix the planks to so they tend to want buldge outwards especially in the bow area and it was hard to try and hold a good shape, filler blocks can't be used as they block out the decks, but with a bit effort I am fairly happy with the result so far  
 

 

 

 
I should also mention that I filled the nail holes with bamboo treenails to give the planks a bit of extra security

Hi All,
 
The last thing to do on this deck was to fit the aft riding bit. The parts supplied for the riding bits were laser cut 5mm plywood and the uprights terminated on the orlop deck where McKay's ATOS shows them going down to the hold so I extended the aft set of bits down to the hold deck, the fore set wont be seen on this deck so they were left to terminate on the Orlop deck.
 

 

 

 

 
A couple of more photos of the shot garlands from the bow
 

 

After test fittng the Middle Gun deck with the plank termination pieces fitted to the keel and the small beakhead deck fitted , I determined that I would not be able to fit this deck after the hull panking was complete without doing some serious modification to it. So I decided to fit the Middle Gun deck and then plank the hull. Doing it this way will limit my access to the Lower Gun deck cannons meaning that I will not be able to fully rig all of them but I will try to give them as much rigging as I can get on them.
 
I temporarily attached the Gun port pattern to the frames to indetify the position of the guns on thr lower deck. I made up one 32 pounder gun carrige and marked the position for the ringbolts for the train tackle to be drilled into the deck. However I think I made a slight error here as after fitting them I have read a few logs here where they say that these bolts should be located as close to the centre line of the ship as possible, mine aren't because I made allowance for the anchor cable to pass behind them but I think it might be too much
 

 

 

 

 
In the next few photos you can see the ring bolts fitted along with the Fore rining bits and the shot garlands in the mast partner.
 

 

 

Hi All,
 
The last job to do on this deck before it was varnished was to fit the stantions that help support the deck above. They are a pre made  part and need to be filed down to fit between the deck and the frame they were then lightly stained with oak
 

 

 
They were then glued into position at the distance shown on the plans
 

 

One of the mod ifcations I am making to this kit is to fit hand rails to the companionways. I don't know if they  were fittited on this deck but as I said previously there was only one ladder leading to the hold deck in this part of the ship.
 
I am going to make the hand rails out of tooth picks as they have a pattern already turned on the handle end and are about the right diameter.
 
To make them I cut them to length plus a few millimeters and then turned the ends down in my dremel so I had a pin to locate into the holes I had drilled in the coamings. They were then stained with oak.
 

 

 

 

 

 
The ladders were then fitted and the hand rail post were fitted to the Hold deck, the Orlop deck posts won't be fitted until the lower gun deck as fitted as they are fragile and may get broken off
 

 

 

 
 

The fo'csle was left temporarily pinned for stability of the upper frames and to check the mast  alignment with the lower decks
 

 

 
The deck was then marked for planking and the planks laid
 

 

 

Hi All,
 
Just A small update to complete the hold deck. It was planked with 0.5 x 4mm walnut strips in a 2 butt shift pattern, I will follow this pattern for all of the lower decks as you won't be able to see them once the model is complete however i will do a 4 butt shift pattern on the fo'csle.
 

 

 

 

 
The deck waas then sanded and the magazine store was fitted
 

 

 
Also as you can see in the last 2 photos the lower frames have been stained with walnut

While I was waiting for the frames to dry I made up the magazine store which will be fitted to the hold deck
 

 

 
It was then planked with 0.5 x 4mm walnut strips
 

 

 
And finally the door was made up and fitted
 

Hi All,
 
After dry fitting the frames and ensuring a good fit the next step was to roughly fair the first three fames and the bow planking supports because I would not be able to support them properly once they were glued to the keel and it was easier to shape the bow planking supports before fitting them.
 
I then glued the frames to the keel. The first frame was squared to the keel, glued on and allowed to dry then the other three frames were glued on using the decks, which were temporarily pinned and clamped to the frames to keep them square.
 

 

 

 

 
 

The rest of the decks
 

 

 

 
And now the frames and decks dry fitted. These all fitted together very well with minimal adjustment required
 

 

 

 
Well that is all for now I will post some more progress tomorrow

I would suggest that you plank from both and meet in the middle. Here is my reasoning - at both the deck and the keel you have need of a full plank aligning very closely. When you do your planking there is always the possibility that there will be a slight gap. This is more easily handled somewhere in the middle.

Thank you very much Hamilton, Pete and Keith.
 
Hamilton
The kit provided stripes for the deck are not in full length. I must use small stripes.
 
Keith
You are absolutely right she is a monster. But it's a fantastic kit.

Good afternoon.
Everything is prepared for the first planking. I‘ve glued the two parts of the false deck to the hull.
 

 

 



Here are the filler blocks at the bow and the stern:
 

 



And here are the first planks using 2x2 mm stripes:
 

 


Those stripes are only for the lower keel section.
 
 
Although there were no problems at all the model is quite bulky because of it‘s length.
 

I thought I'd add another update; I am getting close to finishing this monster finally after almost a year...
 

 

 

 

 

 
I am now in the process of addind the last details around the ship that I have missed . Gotta say I'm a bit scared of the rigging but this isn't the HMS Victory so I do feel lucky about that!